Dragon Age: Leliana’s Song DLC Review

By James Bishop, on August 9th, 2010

The newest addition to the downloadable content family for Dragon Age: Origins, Leliana’s Song, takes place before the actual Blight and has us following the steps of a pre-Chantry Leliana. Now, some folks have complained about the French-sounding bard that followed them around, but I actually found her to be charming and particularly amusing.

This DLC presents you with a chance to wrap up some unfinished business left by Leliana in the original campaign. In reality, this feels more like something you should play prior to actually starting an Origins playthrough. Not only does the plot work more efficiently, but you can also unlock a special set of leather armor simply by gathering a few doodads for your party in the main campaign. Unfortunately, that’s about all the casual player will really get out of this add-on.

Leliana’s Song is fairly short, clocking in at about an hour. It is completely linear, and explores very few new places with little room for deviation. Only the most diehard fans will find themselves completely ensorcelled by the plot of this secondary campaign, falling far short of Warden’s Keep. And it’s fair to compare the two because they cost the same, and yet Warden’s Keep, the older add-on, actually provides much more to the entirety of the game. Specifically, it adds a new battleground to explore, a chest to store things, some skills and one particularly great weapon.

This is a good add-on for anyone who already owns the rest of the DLC and is just dying to play more Dragon Age. Well, and anyone hopelessly smitten with Leliana and in dire need of another dose. The campaign plays well and has some interesting story bits to it, but just falls short of being worth the price tag.

Our Rating for Leliana’s Song

SKIP

TGR Rating

Darkspawn Chronicles, the only other add-on released in this manner to date, was $5. Leliana’s Song is $10, and offers nothing more than what Darkspawn Chronicles did. If required to give a yay or nay, this one is a nay for the general populace unless they crave more. Had it been $5, this may have been a yay.